Blog dedicado a estudiantes de traducción, especialmente de la Universidad de la República, que ofrece material e información.
Blog dedicated to translation students, especially to those of the University of the Republic, offering material and information.

The single hatch mark ' can stand for foot or a geographical minute (a minute of longitude or latitude). The double hatch mark " can stand for inch or geographical second (a second of longitude or latitude). So 5'6" would mean five feet, six inches. 42°24'54" N. would mean 42 degrees, 24 minutes, 54 seconds north.

Metric Abbreviations

Abbreviation

Unit of Measurement

b

bit

B

byte

C

Celsius, Centigrade

cc or cm³

cubic centimeter (cm³ is standard)

cm

centimeter

G,GB

gigabyte (GB is standard)

g, gr

gram (g is standard)

ha

hectare

K

Kelvin

K, KB

kilobyte (KB is standard)

kg

kilogram

kl

kiloliter

km

kilometer

l

liter

m

meter

M, MB

megabyte (MB is standard)

mcg or µg

microgram ( µg is standard)

mg

milligram

ml

milliliter

mm

millimeter

MT

metric ton

t, T

metric ton

w, W

watt (W is standard)

kw, kW

kilowatt (kW is standard)

kwh, kWh

kilowatt-hour (kWh is standard)

Since the metric system uses standard prefixes, you can easily figure out most other metric abbreviations; for example, cl would be centiliter.

The Greek letter µ (mu) is often used to show the prefix micro, especially in scientific publications. For example, µg would be the same as mcg, and µl would be microliter. When by itself, µ stands for micron.mµ means millimicron, and µµ means micromicron (a millionth of a micron).

The prefix nano means "billionth," and is usually represented by the letter n, as in ns for nanosecond.

To abbreviate most square and cubic units in the metric system, add the exponent ² for square and the exponent ³ for cubic. For example, m² means square meter, and mm³ means cubic millimeter. If you use this notation, use it consistently: Use cm³ rather than cc for cubic centimeter.
In standard scientific notation, the word per is represented by a virgule. So km/h is kilometers per hour.
For international standards including abbreviations for very tiny and very large units, see http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/ or http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/checklist.htm.